AZTEC — Track and field teams from across San Juan County came together for Aztec's Top Gun meet on Thursday.

The Piedra Vista boys' relay teams highlighted the meet as the Panthers set school-records in the 4x100-meter and 4x200-meter.

“The 4x100 is now the fastest 4A team in the state,” said PV assistant coach Wes Pringle. “This is something we've been looking forward to since we lost only one senior last year. We have great sprinter depth this year, and we put it on display today.”

The PV team of Zach Johnson, Orion Kaminky, Beau Clafton and Ty Murphy ran the 4x100 in 43.03 seconds and backed that up with a time of 1:30.00 in the 4x200.

Kaminky believes the Panther relay teams will keep progressing throughout the season and will compete for a state championship in May.

“Our coaches just told us to run our butts off the whole time,” Kaminky said. “We're pretty sure we're near the top in the state. We just need to practice and build chemistry so that when we run races we can actually get our hand offs right, run fast and just beat people.”

The Lady Panthers also had a strong meet.

“Zhianna Flores continued to shine in the sprints and hurdles and I believe Katie Hegarty qualified for state in all three throwing events,” Pringle said.

Kerstin Ortiz won the 800- and 1600-meter runs for the second straight meet as well for PV.

After a slow start to the season, Aztec boys' head coach Steve Lanier is starting to see improvement in his squad.

“We're a couple weeks behind in our conditioning and workouts because the ‘Early Bird' was cancelled and then we had spring break,” Lanier said. “Now we've got some pretty good weather and practices are going longer. So the next two weeks, times will really come down.”

The Lady Tigers are off to a solid start to the year and should be one of the top contenders for a state title.

The Lady Broncos have an inexperienced team but have a few athletes they expect to compete for state titles.

“We got a lot of work to do. We're pretty young. I've got two seniors with experience at state — Shantel Foutz and Hannah Washburn,” said Kirtland Central girls' head coach Leland Adair said. “Shantel won the state championship in the 100-meter hurdles as a sophomore and Hannah has finished second twice in pole vault. They both have big goals and hopefully do well.”

Farmington High had a strong meet in the 4x400 meter relay with the boys winning the event by over 16 seconds.

FHS head coach Jeffrey Dalton expects the relay squads to be solid throughout the season.

Piedra Vista's Brandon Levi leads the pack during the boy's 3200-meter run during Aztec High School's track meet at the Fred Cook Memorial Stadium on Thursday. (Jon Austria/The Daily Times)

“We've got some of the top times in the three sprint relays and feel good about that,” Dalton said. “It's early in the season and we've got them all qualified. That's huge for our program. We've been down for a few years but are showing signs of life.”

Avery Rasher qualified for the Scorps in the high jump, winning the event with a leap of six feet.Shiprock was strong in the longer distance runs with Shawvan Levi taking second in the 1600- and 3200-meter runs.

Chieftains' head coach Brian Paniagua said he's happy with the early season results and is expecting the team to continue its rise throughout the season.

“The kids are doing good so far. I've been surprised by some of the new kids who have come out and shown a little bit of talent,” Paniagua said. “I'd like to see Bloomfield a time or two before district but, overall, I'm pleased.”

Navajo Prep had a couple athletes qualify for state, led by Mika Mauga who won the triple-jump event.Prep head coach Randon Archibeque likes getting his team in meets with the bigger schools in the area to give his squad a look at strong competition.

“We come to all these big meets with the 4A teams because we don't want to beat up on 1A schools. We want to go against schools that will make us better,” Archibeque said.

The track season continues on Saturday with Bloomfield's Harry Hayes Invite.